Ray Budisavljevic has a simple message for state government: If he has to live within his means, it ought to do the same.

Budisavljevic is the Pueblo site manager for Harsco, a worldwide industrial services company. He’s worried about the effects a possible new state tax on industrial energy use will have on his business.

In business, “you cut until you’re healthy,” he told us last week. “Government has an addiction to spending they just have to control.”

On the federal level, he’s right. Spending is out of control.

President Obama and his enablers in Congress have only tossed lighter fluid onto the spending bonfire ignited by congressional Republicans under President Bush. And Obama’s recent effort to quell it — a spending freeze on just 17 percent of the budget, starting next year, not now — is meek. Locking in spending at its highest rate in history is not a profile in courage.

But it’s not fair to unleash that same venom at state lawmakers and Gov. Bill Ritter. State government spending has been reduced by more than $1 billion in recent years, with more to come. It’s not like it was back in the 1990s and the early part of this decade when lawmakers decried “cuts” that were actually decreases in the rate of spending increases.

Discretionary spending, the first and easiest place to cut, is already a very small portion of the state budget, and it’s been cut. Now, lawmakers are carving into areas long considered off limits, such as K-12 spending. They’re long past trimming the fat. “We’re cutting past the bone. We’re cutting bone marrow,” House Speaker Terrance Carroll recently said.

But before lawmakers exploit a loophole created last year by the state Supreme Court, which allows them to raise a few select taxes, folks like Budisavljevic want to know if state government is doing all it can to live within its means.

For the most part, I would argue that state leaders have reduced government responsibly and increased efficiencies, and it’s time to talk about how best to raise revenues. Some of the tax exemptions being considered are not that onerous.

But Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry thinks even more can be done to reduce the costs of government, and in some respects, he’s right — especially when he’s talking about reforming government.

Republicans late last week unveiled a plan to cut state spending by either slashing salaries, eliminating jobs or leaving vacancies unfilled — or a combination of all three. What it lacked in specifics was made up for in bluntness.

But their plan was merely a simple answer to the populist rallying cry to cut spending. (See Exhibit A, the Massachusetts Senate election.)

Until they get more specific, I’m more intrigued by Penry’s earlier plan to force a fundamental shift in how government operates. He claims his Senate Bill 29 could save the state up to $100 million. The tax exemptions being considered last week added up to $130 million.

His bill does some smart things, such as enabling school districts to share or consolidate services. Shouldn’t the dozen or so school districts in El Paso County share some of their highly paid administrators rather than duplicate services? And why does El Paso have 17 school districts within its boundaries when Jefferson has one?

It also would require, among other things, the governor to consolidate state boards or commissions, and institute a two-year hiring freeze. The only new hires would be those who “protect the life, health or safety” of citizens.

Some of the savings wouldn’t amount to much, but a few of the tax exemptions lawmakers are considering don’t amount to much either. Still, the impact on specific industries could be huge.

There are no more silver bullets to fix the budget. But everything, including rethinking how government operates and what we expect from it, must be on the table.

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